Mids. Night's Dream,' act ii, sc. 1:

"And then the whole quire hold their hips, and _loffe_."]

CCLXVI.

[The first two lines of the following are the same with those
of a song in D'Urfey's 'Pills to Purge Melancholy,' vol. v, p.
13.]

There was an old woman
Lived under a hill,
She put a mouse in a bag,
And sent it to mill;

The miller declar'd
By the point of his knife,
He never took toll
Of a mouse in his life.

CCLXVII.

[The following is part of a comic song called 'Success to
the Whistle and Wig,' intended to be sung in rotation by the
members of a club.]

There was an old woman had three sons,
Jerry, and James, and John:
Jerry was hung, James was drowned,
John was lost and never was found,
And there was an end of the three sons,
Jerry, and James, and John!

CCLXVIII.

[The tale on which the following story is founded is found
in a MS. of the fifteenth century, preserved in the Chetham
Library at Manchester.]

There was an old man, who lived in a wood,
As you may plainly see;
He said he could do as much work in a day,
As his wife could do in three.
With all my heart, the old woman said,
If that you will allow,
To-morrow you'll stay at home in my stead,
And I'll go drive the plough:

But you must milk the Tidy cow,
For fear that she go dry;
And you must feed the little pigs
That are within the sty;
And you must mind the speckled hen,
For fear she lay away;
And you must reel the spool of yarn
That I spun yesterday.

The old woman took a staff in her hand,
And went to drive the plough:
The old man took a pail in his hand,
And went to milk the cow;
But Tidy hinched, and Tidy flinched,
And Tidy broke his nose,
And Tidy gave him such a blow,
That the blood ran down to his toes.

High! Tidy! ho! Tidy! high!
Tidy! do stand still;
If ever I milk you, Tidy, again,
'Twill be sore against my will!
He went to feed the little pigs,
That were within the sty;
He hit his head against the beam,
And he made the blood to fly.

He went to mind the speckled hen,
For fear she'd lay astray,
And he forgot the spool of yarn
His wife spun yesterday.

So he swore by the sun, the moon, and the stars,
And the green leaves on the tree,
If his wife didn't do a day's work in her life,
She should ne'er